Pan sauce

I almost forgot. After browning the pepper jack, taco seasoned chicken, we tried to make a pan sauce. We were excited to try this for the first time without a recipe telling us to do it. Cooks Illustrated June 2003 has a "Pan Sauces 101" article. We followed the vermouth-tarragon recipe and substituted yellow onion for shallot. We also had to use dried tarragon instead of fresh.

In our haste we skipped 2 important steps: 1) Discard excess fat - the end result was too greasy. And 2) Return juices to skillet - while the meat is resting elsewhere on a plate, juices are released. We didn't notice this until after we'd made the sauce. We probably would have reduced it again with the new liquid.

A good experiment and we look forward to trying it again.

Party leftovers...

Time to figure out what to do with all the party food leftovers. It was potluck and we provided the snacks: olives, shrimp with cocktail sauce, brie and crackers, buffalo wings (with Frank's Red Hot sauce), veggies, fruit, and I can't remember what else anymore. We tried to stay away from potato chips and other fatty, salty snacks.

As any good party, you have more food than you need. Sunday I bought some New York steaks, chicken breasts and pork chops to go with our leftovers.

Sunday we made fajitas. Used leftover sour cream, red bell pepper and onion, plus tortillas we had on hand. These were really awesome. Fine Cooking advertised them as "quick" but if you have to chop more than 2 or 3 things, it's just not that quick, at least for us.
Seared steak, pepper & onion fajita, Fine Cooking magazine November 2001
Rating: great

Then tonight, we pounded out those chicken breasts (with an 8" frying pan), wrapped them around leftover-party pepper jack cheese and coated them in taco seasoning. On the side, we took all the leftover cauliflower from the veggie tray and made a gratin. Never made a gratin before. Yummy.

Cauliflower Gratin, Perfect Vegetables by the editors at Cooks Illustrated
Rating: great
Pepper jack stuffed chicken, Quick Cooking, December 2003
Rating: good

Scones

Baking. Brrrrr *shiver* The thought of baking gives me chills. Between the yeast, and the baking soda, the sugar, and flour, and measuring, and kneading, and folding - baking isn't cooking, it's a science experiment. And just like high school chemistry class, I usually fail to get the result I'm after. I'm terrible at reading directions. Call it a flaw. In baking it's a fatal flaw. What other division of cooking sells books dedicated to telling you where you went wrong? Why your cake fell. Why your bread didn't rise. Why your cheesecake cracked. Why your cookies are burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.

To heck with it!

But then you get magazines like Fine Cooking's holiday baking issue, and you see all the lovely, tasty morsels you could make. Homemade fruit pies, beautiful cookies, toffee candies, caramel and hot fudge sauces... And you see ads for so many tools and gadgets you *need* to be a successful baker. I already want the over-sized spatula, the Baker's Joy, a digital scale, the micro grater and the Wonder Cup (no, it's not a bra!)

Well, every Christmas season, I resist the urge to go overboard with baking toys because I know, deep down, I'm not a baker at heart. Besides, our moms and grandmothers made fantastic baked breads and goodies with the crappiest of cookware. What's my excuse?

I'm starting out easy. No yeast, no kneading, no special mixing. I've made my second batch of scones, and this time, I didn't forget the butter in the microwave. In fact, I "cut in the butter" - look at me talk baking lingo! I took the basic scone to the next level and chose Fine Cooking's cherry vanilla recipe. Who baby. I think I like scones. Tastes like a sweet biscuit. The cherry vanilla scones could easily be strawberry vanilla, or currant vanilla - or omit the vanilla and use golden raisins with cinnamon, or cranberries.

Cherry Vanilla Scones, from Fine Cooking magazine Winter 2004 issue (yes, 2004...)
Rating: great

Eureka: Kitchen Bouquet!

I'm not talking about flowers. If you remember back in January we made jambalaya and it called for "kitchen bouquet". This ingredient was left out since I had no idea what it was.

Well, in this month's Cook's Illustrated, they cover Kitchen Bouquet in a gravy recipe. Turns out it's a "browning & seasoning sauce", along other grocery store offerings: "Ahhh Bisto", "Rich Brown", and "Gravy Master". According to Cooks Ill., they all taste as bad as they sound. I'm glad I didn't add it to our jambalaya...

Banana Bread

I've come to realize I love breakfast bread. Banana bread, muffins, homemade scones, biscotti... Maybe it stems from my phobia of yeast? I usually skip breakfast (Bad Heather, Bad!) but when there's banana bread in the house, I eat pretty good in the morning.

I've tried three banana bread recipes in all, and they've all been good. Is all banana bread good or something?

This recipe comes from Cooking Light, same magazine issue that brought you the blueberry lemon banana bread last month. I recommend more than 1 T of coconut on top if you like toasted coconut. I skipped the lime glaze -- too sticky.

Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze, from Cooking Light, September 2003
Rating: great

Corn Chowder with Cheese

I love soup. I don't cook it as much as I love it, but it calls to me as such comfort food. I'm hoping I make more of it this cold season. Soup is also great for leftovers. Have extra meat, or veggies in the fridge? Heck, throw it in. For the most part, it's hard to screw up soup (thought I've done it).

This corn chowder was predictable and good. I recommend freshly ground pepper. I'm sure it would do well with extra ingredients, like spicy sausage or bacon. Yum.

Corn Chowder with Cheese from "The Best of Sunset - 122 all time favorites" magazine
Rating: Good

Where there's smoke...

Ahhh, to cook again. To have a sink, and running water, and a dishwasher... and the new counters. I'm in hog heaven. Speaking of hogs, I cooked a little pig today. Pork shoulder, onions and garlic that simmer in some brew with orange juice, ketchup, worshesheshester sauce and other related ingredients.

The pork was good. I recommend toasting the bread. Add extra grilled/sauted onions & sweet peppers for another flavor.

I like recipes that give me an excuse to try new ingredients. Otherwise, I'd never know what to do with things like horseradish root, or fish sauce. Our pantry of condiments, oils, vinegars and sauces is enormous. Well add one more to the collection, because this recipe called for liquid smoke. I've been so curious what liquid smoke smells like - because I hoped to heck it didn't smell like smoke. Would my meat have taste like ash? To my pleasant surprise, it smelled like BBQ'd, saucy ribs. Ohhhh it smelled so good (thank goodness).

Pulled Pork from Raley's/Bel Aire "Something Extra"
Rating: Good

That caramel apple pie looked yummy too...

Oh, and by the way, the new knife works great on food too, not just fingers. We made a little California roll among other concoctions last night, and the knife outperformed the chef's knife for cutting thin slices. We're happy to have it in the block!

The potato that wouldn't cook

Ever find a stubborn piece of food that won't cooperate? Oh wait, all the time. Well anyway, this evening we tried to have a nice dinner with my parents, only the potatoes weren't cooked. Holly geez, there were nuked in the microwave over 15 minutes and then steamed in foil - all done naccording to the mini-chef living in our microwave. So we nuked them some more. And still not cooked. By this time, we were about done with dinner and only J.T. was interested in his potato. (Poor thing has had potato cravings for a while now.) So he nuked his yet again and the damn thing wouldn't cook. We cut it open and you could make a nice "slap" sound when you clapped them together.

Clearly defective potatoes.

All the same, the dinner was payment for Dad helping us with the kitchen sink plumbing. A sink just isn't a sink without running water... And we're finding a kitchen just isn't a kitchen without a sink. :(